03 January 2015

THIS coming Monday I’ll be emailing to the Australian Senate a submission, The delivery and effectiveness of Australian aid to Papua New Guinea, which isderived from the considerations of a panel of PNG Attitude readers.

If you’re interested in the paper, and I think it makes good reading, you can download it here.

The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee had asked if we were interested in making a submission and, in a first for PNG Attitude but well within the spirit of what is a well-entrenched collaborative spirit, we asked readers to provide input.

These views have now been assembled into a joint submission representing the panel of 14 who wished to make a contribution.

23 December 2014

THE Australian Senate, through its Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, has written to PNG Attitude to draw attention to an inquiry it is conducting into Australia’s aid program in Papua New Guinea.

The committee is inquiring into the delivery and effectiveness of Australian aid to PNG.

And, if we get sufficient comments and observations in response to this article, I will put together a joint submission to the committee from PNG Attitude readers.

The terms of reference are below and the committee says there is no requirement to address them all, only the ones relevant to us.

16 November 2014

PROFESSOR Allan Patience of the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute has said that there has been a worrying blurring of the separation of powers in Papua New Guinea and that Australian aid seems to have worsened the development situation in PNG.

Prof Patience, speaking with interviewer Geraldine Doogue on ABC’s Radio National, said it was “especially worrying” that Taskforce Sweep which was doing good work in tracking down corruption had been swept aside.

He was also concerned that former Attorney-General Kerenga Kua, “who was one of the best ministers in the Cabinet and one of the most balanced”, had been replaced by somebody likely to do the prime minister's bidding.

The comment led me to think about the lessons PNG can learn from Deng Xiaoping’s reform of China. There are many, but one need to understand the fundamental changes that happened in China during Deng’s tenure.

After Mao Zedong died, Deng took charge and initiated a series of reforms to change the course of China’s future. He was able to address the developmental needs of that time and help transform the lives of many people in China.

I guess I had not done enough to tell people what I was doing; it just wasn't in my nature.

I tasked the Oro Administration to report on our achievements and what we were doing, but perhaps they were too busy and it never happened.

Well it was my fault, the buck stops at the top and I didn’t follow up.

Also we had diverted available funds to our Disaster Readiness Capacity so we could respond quickly to catastrophe. Saving lives was more important than informing people.

That said, It is always an awesome feeling to witness the materialisation of your hard work.

The Four Bridges Project is a combined Australia-PNG government enterprise with a budget of more than K400 million to construct the four main bridges in Oro washed away by Cyclone Guba’s terrible floods in 2007.

BISHOP Rochus Tatamai of Bereina Diocese has called upon various arms of government to take the lead in assisting remote communities in the mountains of Goilala in the Central Province.

Social services such as health, education and pastoral presence are needed in these areas. Missionaries, public servants and ordinary people have died over the years trying to provide services to the people in the mountains while travelling on small planes.

“There is no other way around for places like Guari-Kamulai, Fane, Ononghe, Jongai and Kerau, but through flying into the mountains on small planes”, Bishop Rochus said.

16 October 2014

IT'S rather sad to see how often medical drugs crop up as a source of scandal and conflict in Papua New Guinea.

In recent times there has been the controversy surrounding the appointment of a manufacturer who PNG’s doctors, and others qualified to pass judgement, alleged was unable to meet global quality assurance standards.

The tender process for that decision also seemed unable to pass muster, despite being vigoously defended by Health Minister Malabag.

The PNG government professed to be unconcerned about either of these malfunctions in the system.

And while the Australian government said nothing, it did withdraw millions of dollars it had on offer for purchasing drugs.

15 October 2014

MANY people know how to put a smile on people's faces, but putting smiles on a nation is a challenge of another magnitude.

Rising to that challenge is Novocastrian oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr Barry Reed, who is working to reduce pain and suffering for people in Papua New Guinea.

Last month, with the support of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Dr Reed worked to expand the Brighten A Smile preventive dental health campaign he initiated as a volunteer with the Kokoda Track Foundation in 2013.

It works with children of PNG's Oro Province, where the Kokoda campaign of World War II was fought.

Returning for his fourth aid visit in the past two years, Dr Reed was a volunteer last month as part of a dental team in Oro Province aboard the YWAM charity medical aid ship MV Pacific Link, a converted trawler.

11 October 2014

CENTRAL Province educators are learning innovative methods of teaching children to read in a project to boost the province’s literacy rate.

Eight educators recently completed a workshop in the use of phonetics - a method of teaching children to read by associating sounds with letters in the alphabet.

Funded through the Kokoda Initiative and facilitated by the Central Province Education Division, the workshop was part of Australia’s ongoing support to elementary and primary education in the Kokoda region.

10 October 2014

AUSTRALIA’S $37 million a year deployment of 73 federal police to Papua New Guinea — hailed as a breakthrough last year when it began — is being reviewed by the PNG government, potentially to wind it down.

This is in part because of unrealistic “visible policing” expectations — with the AFP officers lacking legal powers to make ­arrests, conduct investigations or direct PNG counterparts.

A report published yesterday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute argues the need to ­almost double Canberra’s input of cash and police.

The deployment was agreed between then prime minister Kevin Rudd and his PNG counterpart Peter O’Neill, in the context of a plan to send asylum-seekers to Manus Island.

17 September 2014

A village elders’ meeting in Bougainville last month turned into an angry debate over the lack of development in the Panguna District due to lack of funding.

“We have had enough,” Maria Dunsimora of the Oune Village Assembly burst out.

“There is money. Our money is with Rio Tinto and the PNG government. We vote leaders to Port Moresby and the ABG (Autonomous Bougainville Government) to find ways to get that money. But what do they do? They have forgotten us.

“ABG was in existence since 2005,” Maria continued, “and what have they done? Jimmy Miringtoro came and told us that he will deal with BCL, Rio Tinto and PNG over the environmental degradation we the Panguna people now live with, but I am yet to witness that.

“We placed Michael Oni in the ABG and now he is the Mining minister, but again he does not know Panguna’s needs.”

25 August 2014

A fully equipped National and District Court complex has been opened in Popondetta, greatly improving access to justice for the people in Oro Province.

The refurbished court was opened as part of a K450, 000 package to the province under the PNG-Australia Law and Justice Partnership.

Australia’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Deborah Stokes, said Australia is proud to have invested in the facility as it would increase the sittings and circuits of the courts. Two courts can sit simultaneously in comfortable courtrooms.

23 August 2014

AROUND the world international donors have become more and more comfortable with the ‘c-word’ – corruption that is.

During the Cold War, corruption was largely absent from international aid discourse – both sides of the iron curtain were more interested in gaining the support of ‘Third World’ governments, than monitoring how they spent their aid.

Corruption was a word not muttered in polite company, not in front of one’s friends (strategic allies) anyway.

That changed in the 1990s with the rise of Transparency International, and the World Bank signalling – through President James Wolfensohn’s now famous ‘corruption-as-cancer’ speech – its intention to fight corruption through its projects and programs.

14 July 2014

IT'S amazing what can happen when you least expect it. From a simple word at the right time.

This year in Pittsworth, Queensland, Rotarians Aub Schulstad and Trevor Shields got talking about providing help for an 89-year old disabled gentleman who retired to the Pittsworth area after living in Papua New Guinea for over 40 years.

When Trevor Shields heard the words 'Papua New Guinea' he thought of a major book project his club was about to undertake for PNG.

The request for help from Pittsworth Rotary came from Angela Sowai Gizoria from the village of Pes in PNG.

Angela wanted to establish a library in a bush primary school near Aitape in Sandaun Province. She was hoping to fulfill a lifelong dream by establishing the library to service 500 students from nine villages.

25 June 2014

AT university we were naïve enough to believe that if we did authentic and quality research, collected the right data and established the problem with the active participation of community members, then we were in a better position to take action. Effective planning would follow from there.

But after working in the development field for a while, it is clear to me that community development is a murky world of some success and even more failure.

With many failed community development projects, or should we call them experiments, one tends to wonder why development ventures that look straight ahead with good resource support do not always survive and become successful.

14 May 2014

I GUESS there aren’t too many major hits for Papua New Guinea in last night’s Federal budget – not compared with the burden placed on rank and file Aussies anyway.

But there are some mild side effects I should mention.

First, there's a reduction of $7.6 billion over the next five years in the total overseas aid budget, which takes Australia well below the target originally agreed for helping countries meet the millenium development goals.

In a sneaky move, Australia will now tie its aid budget to the consumer price index, not gross domestic product. What this means in layman's terms is a net reduction – and a big one – in its overall aid program.

12 May 2014

I AM delighted to open a library near Port Moresby that, with Australia’s support, will help to improve children’s literacy and boost life opportunities in PNG.

The Buk bilong Pikinini (Books for Children) libraries provide age-appropriate reading material to children and their parents, and offer early childhood development and literacy programs, including for the parents of children attending.

More than any other skill, reading gives people the ability to learn, participate in formal education and teach themselves. It is the key to self-empowerment and economic independence.

Papua New Guinea’s literacy rate is low and many children lack access to books.

22 April 2014

WE'VE been back in New Zealand ("civilisation" some people have said to me) for two weeks now. During my last few weeks in Bougainville I was thinking a lot about my stay there. Or in particular, my impact. What have I changed? What have I left behind?

I'll start with the conclusion: It’s really hard to find a balance between the very great things and the very harsh things I've experienced.

For starters, no one in Bougainville goes hungry. The bucket loads of rain and sun are a winner for photosynthesis and things grow just about everywhere. Every family has land and as well as a house they keep gardens. Many also have a share of a plantation, growing either cocoa or coconuts to sell overseas.

15 March 2014

FOUR emerging Papua New Guinea (PNG) scientists have begun a Charles Sturt University (CSU) training program designed to address a critical shortage of veterinarians in their country.

The four science graduates are undertaking a three-month program at CSU in Wagga Wagga to further develop their diagnostic skills and understanding of animal health.

Dr Andrew Peters, a veterinarian and lecturer in the University’s School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, has made several trips to remote parts of PNG for his PhD research into parasite infections in Australasian pigeons.

05 March 2014

THE World Bank has pledged US$30 million to fund the single largest agricultural initiative in Papua New Guinea, which will seek to improve the livelihoods of up to 60,000 coffee and cocoa farmers.

The Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP) aims to work with smallholder farmers to double yield and improve the quality of their coffee and cocoa, and increase their incomes.

PNG’s coffee and cocoa production have both declined over the past decade as a result of a range of factors, including: a lack of extension services in many areas; inadequate replanting, with many trees over 40 years old.

03 March 2014

I MOVED to Arawa, Bougainville, on a 12-month Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) assignment.

I am library management adviser at the new public library in Arawa - a joint initiative between the Bougainville Heritage Foundation (based in Arawa) and the Bougainville Library Trust (based in Wellington, chaired by Lloyd Jones, author of Mister Pip).

My objectives were to set up the haus stori (library) and cultural centre alongside my local counterpart. We are now working on getting writing workshops, arts and crafts workshops and an oral history project up and running.

I love the beauty. In Arawa we are lucky to have mountains on one side and the sea on the other. The market and produce here is fantastic and the people are wonderful - very friendly and kind. Frustrations are that things get done when they get done! The systems do work, it just takes time.

01 March 2014

TWO Royal Australian Navy ships yesterday began hydrographical surveys of waters between Buka and Torokina in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville to support Operation Render Safe 2014.

Operation Render Safe, conducted by the Australian Defence Force on behalf of the Australian Government, is a regional program to remove unexploded bombs, weapons and ammunition remaining from World War II.

The operation occurs regularly in the South West Pacific. The most recent tasks removed explosive remnants of war from Solomon Islands in 2013 and from Rabaul in 2011.

18 February 2014

AUSTRALIA’s justice minister Michael Keenan arrives in Papua New Guinea today for a three-day visit in which he’s having talks on transnational crime, policing and corruption.

“The PNG Government is taking steps to fight corruption and I look forward to discussing progress in this area with Minister [Kerenga] Kua, including PNG’s progress to establish an Independent Commission Against Corruption,” Mr Keenan [pictured, pick the deliberate error] said.

The visit follows hard on the heels of what has been termed “a lecture” by Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop on corruption and lack of development in PNG.

Ms Bishop, slammed the PNG government claiming corruption is rife and lamenting the country’s backward slide on the Millennium Development Goals.

16 February 2014

AUSTRALIA’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop last week announced $3 million over three years from the Australian aid program to fund the Papua New Guinea Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre (CMC).

The CMC will commence operations later this year with the goal of improving access to services for survivors of family and sexual violence.

Ume Wainetti, CMC Management Committee member and National Coordinator of the PNG Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee, said that establishing case management services in the country is essential for the protection of survivors of violence.

10 February 2014

AUSTRALIA is training 450 midwives, nurses and community health workers in 2014 to help Papua New Guinea address its health workforce shortage.

The Australian government has announced the young Papua New Guineans from across the nation receiving the Australia Awards Pacific Scholarships.

The head of development cooperation at the Australian High Commission, Stuart Schaefer (pictured), last week visited the Lutheran School of Nursing in Madang where 58 award recipients are starting or continuing studies.

Mr Schaefer said the students who are studying nursing and midwifery are part of a major initiative by PNG and Australia to save lives.

“Reducing maternal mortality is a top priority of Australia’s partnership for development with PNG,” Mr Schaefer said.

28 January 2014

THE STATISTICS ARE SOBERING. One in 20 women in Papua New Guinea die in childbirth. One in 12 children die before the age of five due to malnutrition. And the average life expectancy at birth is just 56 years.

To help change these devastating figures, Ballarat osteopath Megan Fraumano will join the third No Roads to Health expedition in March, aimed at improving the health of communities along the Kokoda Track.

Ms Fraumano walked the track with her family, including her grandparents, in 2009 and said it was a “pretty big eye-opener” to see the locals’ health first hand.

20 January 2014

AUSTRALIAN AID GROUPS ARE ACCUSING the Federal Coalition government of breaking an election commitment after it revealed their funding would be cut mid-year as part of a $650 million reduction in budgeted foreign aid spending, leaving 2013-14 spending $107 million below what was spent last year.

Foreign minister Julie Bishop announced the cuts for aid groups as well as a complete defunding of international environmental programs. The government is redirecting a pared-back aid budget towards the region but will maintain spending on countries such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Nauru, whose co-operation is necessary for the success of its asylum policy.

Organisations such as Care, Save the Children, Caritas, ChildFund, Plan International and the Fred Hollows Foundation – who have partnership agreements with the government – have had their current year funding cut by about 8%.

28 December 2013

AUSTRALIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER JULIE BISHOP has strongly defended her government's decision to withdraw money for a medical supply program in Papua New Guinea.

The Papua New Guinea government recently awarded the multi-million dollar contract to a company called Borneo Pacific to distribute supplies to health centres across the country.

But the Department of Foreign Affairs has told PNG it will not be providing $38 million to fund the program due to serious concerns about the tender process.

"The Australian government had agreed to pay for the distribution across PNG of medical supply kits and of course the kits were to be high quality from a reputable and international supplier," she said.

24 December 2013

AUSTRALIA’S COALITION GOVERNMENT will crack down on the spiralling administrative costs of foreign aid after it was revealed spending almost quadrupled since 2007.

Between 2007 and 2012, Australia's aid spending doubled from $3 billion to $6 billion, now costing every Australian $291.80 a year.

Data released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows administration was last year the third biggest spend of Australia's Overseas Development Assistance at $378 million - up from $102 million in 2007.

These administrative costs were more than double the money allocated for basic health care and more than four times the money used to provide basic drinking water and sanitation.

23 December 2013

THE SECOND AND FINAL CONTINGENT of Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers arrived in Papua New Guinea on Saturday to work alongside their counterparts in community policing operations in Port Moresby and Lae.

Speaking at the arrival of the final 10 officers, AFP Assistant Commissioner Alan Scott said that this deployment brings the total number of sworn officers working as part of the PNG-Australia Policing Partnership to 62.

“We have met the Australian government’s promise of an additional 50 AFP officers to be working in PNG by the end of this year,” Assistant Commissioner Scott said.

“Now that the full contingent is here, we are looking forward to working in partnership with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) to assist in developing their highly visible policing capability.”

12 December 2013

WITH AUSTRALIA’S NEW COALITION government having struck rough waters in China, Indonesia and Timor Leste in recent times, it needs all the friends it can keep in the neighbourhood.

And with the Abbott government determined to cut back on foreign aid, and PNG having long expressed a convenient relaxation with the concept, yesterday’s 22nd Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum seemed a good opportunity to re-invent an old friendship.

Thus the official statements were able to boldly assert a ‘pledge’ that the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea would take a “fresh approach” to their relationship.

04 December 2013

2013 HAS BEEN ONE of the Foundation's most eventful years. We have made record progress on many fronts: our scholarships, our projects in education, health, community development and microbusiness, and our fundraising.

In particular, the Ralph Honner Oration Dinner was a sell-out and raised a record $120,000. We are very grateful to all who came along and make the night such a success.

We awarded another 330 scholarships and supported 40 schools with the educational resources they need to operate. We built the Naduri Elementary School and Enivilogo Elementary School and are now working on new classrooms in Buna, Sanananda and Manari which will take us over into the next year.

17 November 2013

IN SEPTEMBER I TRAVELLED to Papua New Guinea with Wayne Merry from Hope Worldwide to install small solar panel systems on the rooftop of a rural clinic in the Simbu province and at the 9 Mile Urban Clinic in Port Moresby.

It turned out to be quite an adventure - apart from the remoteness of Simbu, which is accessible only by plane and four-wheel drive, we were encountered various roadblocks set up by protesters and some opportunistic bandits.

We had to request a convoy from the local police on our way there and they in turn charged us a sum for their service. To avoid the premium fee on the way back, we tailed a local convoy with truckloads of people needing to get to the town to stock up on food.

15 November 2013

CHINA'S ONE BILLION DOLLAR AID package to the Pacific has been described as "fairly significant" but analysts say it remains to be seen how the money will be distributed. Vice-Premier Wang Yang announced last Friday that the Chinese government will provide the concessionary loan to Pacific island nations to support construction projects.

Wang Yang made the announcement at a forum with Pacific island nations but no other details on the loan were provided.

"[We] need to be careful, it's a facility of one billion dollars available for infrastructure loans," said Director of the Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute, Jenny Hayward Jones.

12 October 2013

GEELONG'S GIFT TO Belden Barium is an ear to the world and new life opportunity.

The big-smiling teen is home on Ali Island in remote Papua New Guinea after having undergone surgery at St John of God Hospital, which has saved and improved dwindling hearing in his one functioning ear.

Belden is one of about 800 people who live on the island, about 12 km off Aitape on PNG's north coast.

07 September 2013

PAPUA NEW GUINEA HAS ANNOUNCED what Prime Minister Peter O’Neill calls a ‘substantial’ aid program to the Pacific region.

“This is in line with the announcement by former PNG Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare that PNG will start embarking on a program of regional development assistance to the Pacific,” Mr O’Neill told journalists.

The first three Forum island countries to receive development aid from PNG are Tuvalu, Tonga and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

01 September 2013

It was good to see him and Channel 7′s Today Tonight draw attention to the problem of corruption in PNG and the need for greater Australian government and bank action through their ‘special investigation’ aired last week.

But Prof Sharman made two outrageous claims that need to be challenged.

28 August 2013

THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT should direct more of its Papua New Guinea aid budget through established NGOs operating there to improve its effective delivery to the people who need it most, according to the Australian-based Kokoda Track Foundation.

“The locals call it ‘Boomerang Aid’ because so much of it returns straight back to Australia in costs and fees. There is no doubt that an unacceptable proportion of our aid to our nearest neighbour fails to reach the ground there.”